Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/189

 TANTALUS. 157 and Phrygian heroic names, Midas and Gyges, were the typea of wealth and luxury, as well as of chariot driving, in the imag- ination of a Greek. The inconsiderable villages of the Pisatid derived their whole importance from the vicinity of Olympia : they are not deemed worthy of notice in the Catalogue of Homer. Nor could the genealogy which connected the eponym of the en- tire peninsula with Pisa have obtained currency in Greece unless it had been sustained by preestablished veneration for the locality of Olympia. But if the sovereign of the humble Pisa was to be recognized as forerunner of the thrice-wealthy princes of Mikenoe, it became necessary to assign some explanatory cause of his riches. Hence the supposition of his being an immigrant, son of a wealthy Lydian named Tantalus, who was the offspring of Zeus and Plouto. Lydian wealth and Lydian chariot-driving render- ed Pelops a fit person to occupy his place in the legend, both as ruler of Pisa and progenitor of the Mykenaean Atreids. Even with the admission of these two circumstances there is considera- ble difficulty, for those who wish to read the legends as consecu- tive history, in making the Pelopids pass smoothly and plausibly from Pisa to Mykenaa. I shall briefly recount the legends of this great heroic family as they came to stand in their full and ultimate growth, after the localization of Pelops at Pisa had been tacked on as a preface to Homer's version of the Pelopid genealogy. Tantalus, residing near Mount Sipylus in Lydia, had two chil- dren, Pelops and Niobe. He was a man of immense possessions and preeminent happiness, above the lot of humanity : the gods communicated with him freely, received him at their banquets, and accepted of his hospitality in return. Intoxicated with such prosperity, Tantalus became guilty of gross wickedness. He stole nectar and ambrosia from the table of the gods, and reveal- ed their secrets to mankind : he killed and served up to them at a feast his own son Pelops. The gods were horror-struck when they discovered the meal prepared for them : Zeus restored the mangled youth to life, and as Demeter, then absorbed in grief for the loss of her daughter Persephone, had eaten a portion of the shoulder, he supplied an ivory shoulder in place oi it. Tan- talus expiated his guilt by exemplary punishment. He was placed in the under-world, with fruit and water seemingly clos